Christmas letter from Sr Prema, Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Instead of longing for a world of “broad and easy way of pleasure, security and power,” people should give up on the quest for success and too much efficiency in order to meet the real needs of people. Children, even the unborn, are the major victims of our times. “The joy we give to one child and one unhappy home will be our best Christmas gift for Jesus.”
Kolkata (AsiaNews) – We are publishing the Christmas letter that Sr. Mary Prema, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, wrote to her fellow members of the congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
My dearest co-workers, active, sick and suffering, lay Missionaries of Charity, I thirst movement members, volunteers.
I wish you a very fervent Advent and a Happy Christmas. May the Little Child Jesus fill you with His spirit of love, peace and joy.
All of us long for that love. Peace and joy. To satisfy this longing, the world advocates the broad and easy way of pleasure, security and power. Travelling along this road, however, our hearts begin to crave for more and more to fill our emptiness. We begin to groan under the slavery of addiction and demands and to grieve over the ruins of broken hearts and relationships.
Jesus walked the narrow way of the cross which led to the resurrection and to new life. We follow Him in faith and simplicity. Jesus, the wisdom and power of God, came in littleness and we trust that when we are weak the power of God comes to perfection in us. Jesus doesn’t offer us solutions for our problems, but He leads us from glory unto glory in the light of the Beatitudes along the road of conversion.
During Advent, the call of John the Baptist is heard: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Is 40:3) May Mary, full of grace, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, help us to change any attitude that keeps us far from Jesus. The time has come:
• To turn away from the expectation and demand that others have to change and instead to set out to change our own attitudes.
• To turn away from the ambition to be admired for our success and begin to practice faithfulness in the hidden, little things.
• To turn away from the desire for efficiency and to start to focus on the person’s immediate need to be taken care of effectively and in all things aiming at the salvation and sanctification of souls.
As the year is ending, I am reflecting about the events of the year 2020. People are groaning under the scourge of COVID-19 and other afflictions of extreme hardship. The world faces civil war, atrocities inflicted by gangs and totalitarian governments, racial violence, homes destroyed by typhoon, etc.
Families have struggled with sickness, death, unemployment, restrictions never before experienced in life, including limitations in access to churches and other places of worship. As always, the poor and the children have suffered the most. Children have also been victims of legislation promoting abortion, divorce, same-sex unions, drugs and pornography.
Jesus said to our Mother, “How it hurts to see these poor children soiled with sin… draw them away from the hands of the evil one.”
Let us resolve to do all we can, in our own capacity, to protect children, including the unborn. The joy we give to one child and one unhappy home will be our best Christmas gift for Jesus.
May you have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Please, pray for me.
I remember each one of you, your families and loved ones in my prayer.
God bless you
Sr. M. Prema M. C.
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07/09/2016 13:14
